


And Perhaps One Day

by roadtripexpert



Category: Mabel (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, College, F/F, Growing Old Together, Latin, Pining, War, basically three different lives that Anna and Mabel have lived together, because i love them, but not really?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 14:50:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20640974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roadtripexpert/pseuds/roadtripexpert
Summary: Their love is a story both of them know by heart.





	And Perhaps One Day

I.

She can’t possibly stop staring at Mabel Martin. This is a problem, because Anna Limon is failing her Latin course, badly. Mabel wasn’t. That annoys Anna. But what annoys her more is how Mabel Martin makes her feel. Which is to say: too much. 

So, the problem is Mabel Martin and how she makes Anna feel.

And what she feels is this:

Anna Limon looks at Mabel Martin and feels certainly flood her like nothing will ever be false again. It’s terrifying. Anna _ knows _ . She’s never known before. 

It’s not love at first sight, she doesn’t believe it that. But it’s a steady, overwhelming tenderness that feels bigger than anything Anna has ever felt. It feels like she could drown. Isn’t this supposed to happen gradually? Isn’t Mabel supposed to let her hair down from a ponytail and Anna is supposed to feel fluttery about it for a minute, that’s all? She doesn’t. She feels her entire chest expand. Her ribs crack under the pressure. She dies in the back row of Mrs. LeDang’s Latin class, strangled by her own longing. The ancients would be proud. 

It started when Mabel bumped into her after class, trying to get out of the lecture hall. Anna said something like: “Sorry! Sorry!” then swallowed her own tongue, because Mabel had just turned to look at her and Anna had to smother a rising urge to kiss her, or hug her, or worse. Mabel’s face was inscrutable. Anna doesn’t remember if she said anything else, only that her face was hot, and she couldn’t hear anything but the sound of her heart and a deep thrumming coming from somewhere deep under her skin. 

Anna doesn’t think that feeling ever actually went away. Mabel is always there, like waves, like wind. Mabel is inevitable and she won’t even look at Anna. Anna thinks this is the great tragedy of her life. She tries to be a big girl, suck it up, translate Vergil. But all she can do is stare.

II.

It is war, and it is night. Mabel finds her way to Anna’s cot, where she’s sleeping in her boots, laced up. Practical and so deeply sad that Mabel could cry. She doesn’t. She takes her own shoes off and nudges Anna over. They don’t usually do this. It’s dangerous and impractical. But after the day before, well, maybe Mabel will sleep better knowing Anna is right there. 

_ I’ve got you right where I want you _ , she thinks, tucking herself under Anna’s arms.  _ Right here with me _ . 

The next day Anna is dead. Mabel wasn’t there when it happened. She didn’t know that half of her was gone. She wasn’t told until half a day later. She thinks of that time as a mercy and the only thing she will never forgive herself for. She is discharged a week later. All she has are Anna’s fatigues, her dog tags, her shoes. Mabel goes home to her ancestral land and buries herself. Anna is waiting for her under the earth: barefoot, smiling. 

III.

Anna and Mabel live in a house on a beach. Most of the time they do not talk, they do not need too. Mabel writes poetry. Anna is a journalist. Their love is a story both of them know by heart. It is too heavy to swallow, and too light to carry. It buzzes around their home like a bird. 

Mabel walks along the cliffs and the bluffs watching the moon and sun dance. She comes home to the sound of the record player and the smell of whatever Anna made for dinner. Mabel’s hair smells like the sea, that is what Anna will tell you, if you ask her. Mabel smells like the sea, and she writes and together we built this life. Together. 

They have known each other for lifetimes. And lifetimes. That, they won’t tell you. It is the secret that they talk through when they look at each other and don’t speak. 

Mabel reaches for the pasta sauce in the pan and Anna swats her hand away. Anna needs glasses but won’t get them. 

When it starts raining Mabel goes outside to watch the waves turn green and grey. Anna calls out: “You’ll get pneumonia!” 

Mabel replies: “No I won’t!” 

Of course they fight about other things. When they do it doesn’t sound like fighting, more like dancing. They know it almost as well. 

And if you ask them about any of it they will not reply, only look at each other and smile.


End file.
